Cotton combing is a thriving trade and a way of life. When I was a child, I remember those people with brightly colored clothes, mostly Gypsies from Rajasthan, came to our home to ask for work. They are everyday workers who make a living by combing, mending, sewing, embroidery and other odd jobs.
Old cotton quilts were sorted or loosened in the early 1950s and early 1960s and released by hand. This is a cumbersome process that is done by the grandmother and other women at home. Another option is to wait for cotton feeding each year. Most of these people are gypsy men and women who walk in the countryside, selling honey, tins, intricate beadwork, hand-polished mirrors and patchwork quilts. They took care of the work for a reasonable amount or for the meal of the day.
The man carries a long six- to eight-foot L-shaped yoke on his shoulder. This is made of heavy wood and weighs about 25-30 kg. A tight leather cord extends between the ends of the L-shaped wood pole and is not fragile. This rope is made from the intestines of some animals. It can withstand the continuous picking of the shape of the wooden dumbbell held by his hand. Picking a loud sound is like a guitar string. The bow is erected like an inverted harp with a low side and can be stretched. At one end of the rope is a cardboard cover or a plank of wood that is turned over when the rope is pulled out. When the strings were pulled out, the cotton piled up and jumped high in the air. When the cotton fell on the rope, it was torn into strands. Each sound is a loud and loud sound that can be heard on the surrounding streets.
From the buzzing sound, we can know which house nearby is staining its cotton or its quilts are ready for the winter. Some adults in the family will send a message to the man to call at our home. Some cotton carders set a lively tune when they sang, and they sang along with each sound to have fun. As children, we will hear their songs and string sounds in the distance and be excited. When our mother calls us, we will jump around happily. Sometimes our entire group of children ran out of our house in the direction of the voice, then followed the trucker on his wheel or escorted him back to our house.
They often carry a large colored bag with beads embedded in it, stitched with famous mirror embroidery. There are clusters of colored buttons in this bag. These buttons are made of bone, wood, copper, felt and cloth. They are often used to hold or retain the decorations or quilts they are making. I remember using quilts in the cold winters of North India. There are cloth buttons or flat buttons on the quilt to prevent cotton from collecting inside the quilt. They even cleaned and repaired the quilt with color patches.
Filled toys, especially rag dolls, were common in those days because no electronic or molded toys arrived on the scene. These plush dolls and teddy bears must be torn, washed and refilled from time to time. When the clothes are washed and dried, they will wrinkle the contents of the doll. After drying, if we need, they will repaint the doll's face and attach new eye and nose buttons. The wool string will be wrapped in a hot pin, making curls for the doll, and the doll or toy is just as good as the new one.
Female people are very good at learning. They will sew chintz or heirloom silk sari with perfect fine needles. They even made a 'Choli' shirt, and the decal work earned more in this way. They are very creative people, but they are very poor and have to leave their homes and states to find work. Sometimes few of them make another transaction, looking for honey, and selling small jars from house to house. Some people even use bellows to heat coal in the underground pits in front of our house to melt the tin sheets and use them to arrange old pots and pans that need to be galvanized.
These Gypsies have a bunch of stories, and the children will gather together to listen. One of them is an incredible, incredible story about how one of them grooms the pet's fur and stuffs it into the quilt, or a quilt is filled so light and cloudy that it looks like Some magic flying carpets fly out of the window. Those days. Roses are colored days. Life is simple.
In those days, the life of the Indian middle class was very cheap. One can pay the cotton porter a day's labor costs, or pay three rupees per item, which has been torn, washed, dried and refilled. Sometimes they ask for meals and payments. Some of them prefer to send dry rations home. A person can organize three meals a day.
Now life has become too expensive, worse, and too hasty. People prefer to buy machine combs. Each quilt or mat purchased is expensive and has synthetic fibers inside. This makes cotton combing work or shops redundant. Unless people insist on doing this in the old way, every fold or quilt is now available for purchase and easy to buy. It is used and discarded as fast as it was purchased. If one wants to redecorate the house today or buy something of value, then the person must invest in the decorator and plan to renovate the budget. The simple living room with new curtains is expensive to arrange.
These industries are still needed in the less developed regions of North India, such as Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, the snowy region and the desert of Rajasthan. In these places, many local crafts abound, such as quilted, embroidered tablecloths, exotic gold-plated or Zari overalls, filled with ethnic antiques, puppet making and beadwork. The world famous tie and dye trade is centered on Rajasthan. Metal forming, wood carving, box on the mirror. Making musical instruments, miniature paintings, lace making and designing embossed leather goods are other handicrafts still produced by the people of Rajasthan and Gujarat. These crafts are now sold in urban malls and the prices are too high. Interestingly, these people are still poor and exploited because their efforts have paid a modest price.
Cotton combing and other industries and crafts have hundreds of years of rich history, representing a simple lifestyle that was once popular in old India and now almost completely disappeared. A tradition of rich life.
In some cities, we can still transform our quilts into old stores that still use wooden yoke structures. It needs to sit there all day until the work is done, for fear that the original cotton is replaced or stolen by fibers. The work they do now and do at your own door is rare, as you have done before.
I am wearing synthetic sari now, because darning and repairing the original silk is equivalent to buying a new silk, which is quite unbearable. Over the years, I have become accustomed to living in a life that is perfect for children through television, electric mixers, electric blankets and teflon-coated cookware. These inventions are great, I will be the last person to belittle or cursive, but I still miss the old way of life. It is closely related to the idea that life is simple and is combined with many uses such as cotton. We need to be overwhelmed and mitigated from time to time. Making Kader music by pulling strings is the life music we dance. This is a good analogy to me.
Usually, in those days when I feel depressed, the mind will settle in the memory of happiness. This is a cotton grooming Gypsy and those carefree days we are jumping on the cotton pile, it is a pleasure. I still remember that sometimes we rolled so hard in the cotton pile that it looked like a soft snowman. We will eventually have a runny nose and we will sneeze and cough a few days later. We will skip the school. Those days.
Orignal From: Those are the days of cotton combing
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